Small firebox management

[Huntindog1]

Rake Coals Forward for a longer burn time. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/rake-coals-forward-and-stove-start-up-pictures.80659/

Key to longer burn time is loading really dry wood with a rake your coals forward method. By pulling those coals forward you now have a large open space in the back of the stove to plop a big 6-7" split and be able to lay it on the bottom of the stove back there with no hot coals under it. Then put a medium split on top of that larger split back in the back of the stove. Picking sizes to get a good load in your stove is an art form.
Why really dry wood? Well how fast you can get the stove up to temp to get the input primary air shut back down for an all night load is key. As ask your self how much of my main large load in the back of the stove did I burn up to get the stove up to temps before I could get the stove shut back down to a low burn level. Wood that has a little moisture in it good enough to use but just a little too much moisture can be stubborn to get temps up in the stove. Thats where kindling comes in and Super Cedars. Rake your coals forward get your stove loaded with bigger stuff in the back and load stuff up front with smaller stuff and try and figure out how to put some small split high quality kindling in the fire box up towards the front. Then lay a Super Cedar fire starter ontop of the small kindling. Best results I ever got was taking some really dry red oak and splitting it down to like 1/2 to 1 inch kindling splits. Whats going to happen is you have the coal bed raked to the front adding heat already then you are going to have that super cedar andthe small split oak splits for kindling firing up hot and fast adding to the heat from the coals to bring the fire box temps up fast and getting the smaller wood sitting on the hot coals up in the front of the stove getting that stuff off gassing really quickly and you will see your secondary flames light off quicker for you up in the top of the stove, then those secondary flames are adding to the heat of the firebox. So you have the coals, the kindling and the secondary flames making heat in the stove getting things going quickly so then with time and experience you will learn to shut the input air down in 1/4 to 1/3 increments at a time so as to not kill your secondary flames in the top of the stove. This whole technique will allow your stove to get up and going and you will have burned very little of your main wood load in the back of the stove as that wood in the back of the stove is larger splits and not sitting on a heat source of very hot coals to make it burn quickly. The stove then burns more in a fashion of front to back. The key is getting your input air shut back down quickly with out snuffing the secondary flames in the top of the stove. Going back to really dry wood as any moisture will slow down your start ups considerably.

 

[DBoon]

I have a small stove (Lopi Answer). I've found that to really optimize performance in the coldest parts of the year, I need to do the following:

1. Split my own wood. I split my own so I can split the pieces square or rectangular to the exact size I want (3 or 4" to maybe almost 5" on a side).
2. Get it really dry - 2 years dry, covered.
3. Split some pieces pretty small - 1" or so on a side, maybe up to 2" on the other side
4. Create some small kindling pieces about 10" long and 1/4" to 1/2" thick
5. I rake the coals forward. I don't have a lot coals (see #2 above) and I reload at about 300 to 350 degrees F
6. Put that 10" long 1/4" thick piece in the back of the stove, vertically. This keeps the back pieces from sitting against the back of the firebox and allows airflow around the big pieces I put in the back and enhances the burn
7. I put a big square split in the back. I'll put it on top of a few small coals to keep it off the firebox bottom (this happens kind of naturally).
8. I put another big square split on top of the bottom back piece. It sits nicely on top and doesn't fall over since they are both square.
9. Maybe stack some smaller pieces on top in the back if I have room
10. Create a V in front through the coals to get primary air into the back
11. Put a big square split in the front.
12. Toss a mix of smaller pieces in the middle bottom
13. Put a big rectangular piece in the front top - this keeps it from falling forward in my E-W loading stove
14. Wedge whatever additional I can in the front top as room allows
15. By now, my wood has probably caught fire. I leave the firebox door open a crack to assist in getting a good flame start.

Having four pretty good size pieces in the firebox provides a nice, long burn with pretty stable heat output for a long time. Even with the "squareness" of the pieces somewhat reducing airflow around the back and front stacks, the small pieces get the burn going fast, the back piece provides good airflow around the back stack, and the tight fit between the top and bottom pieces lengthens the burn time.

Thanks in advance for all the comments about how I should get a bigger stove don't want one, don't have room.